“Rational people go on irrational diets because they are desperate”—Michael Greger, M.D.

Fat. Sugar. Calories. Carbohydrates. Who wouldn’t be confused? In a society so obsessed about not getting fat, why is it that many of us are fat? When something is “fattening,” we really mean it is dense in calories, and is likely to make us fat. There are misleading terms, and yet we look for “low-fat,” “sugar-free,” “low-carb,” and “zero calories” as answers to healthy foods. These are good advertising gimmicks; junk food is still junk food. Despite popular belief, carbs are not the enemy. Populations whose dietary staples are rich in carbohydrates tend to be considerably slimmer than those who make meat and dairy their dietary mainstays.1

In the case of diet, calories are what make a person gain weight. Fat does play a role, but it is because fat is very high in calories. One gram of fat has 9 calories––almost twice as many as a gram of carbohydrate, which contains only 4 calories.2 Plant foods are low in fat and calories and high in nutrients and fiber, so a person drops weight and gains energy by eating the right foods without having to lift a finger, although exercise will speed up the process of losing weight.

Short-term weight loss is not the same thing as lifelong weight management.3 Providing we aren’t restricting our calories, people on high-fat and high-protein diets retain far more calories, as opposed to burning those calories as body heat.4 Rational people go on irrational diets because they are desperate.5 Fad diets do not work because of their diuretic effect that results in people losing up to a gallon of water in pounds the first week, which encourages dieters to continue.6 This type of weight loss is neither permanent nor safe. Healthy weight loss is achieved slowly, through eating the right types of foods––a diet that is absent of animal products. Remember, slow and steady wins the race.

When we attempt to count calories, limit portions or skip meals entirely, the body thinks it has entered starvation mode. It slows the metabolism in order to sustain life over long periods without food. When you think you are being good by not eating much or skipping meals, you are in fact making it much harder to burn off unwanted body weight. You want to make sure that you eat enough calories (but get your calories from the right foods) so you can assure your body it is safe to burn calories. Because plant foods are low in calories and high in fiber, a person feels full long before they have consumed too many calories. If you eat the right type of foods, you will not have to place restrictions on the amount of food you eat. In fact, the more variety you eat, the more benefits your body will derive from phytonutrient-packed, disease-fighting superfoods.

This carbohydrate-phobic society is the result of misinformation and a lack thereof. Some people know that all carbohydrates are not the same. Others they feel they are safe if they avoid them entirely. Here’s the truth about carbs:

“Carbohydrate” means carbon dioxide and water, which are what plants make carbs out of. Carbon dioxide and water are all the waste product one is left with after the body uses carbohydrates as fuel. Without carbohydrates, the body enters starvation mode and its only choice is to burn fat inefficiently by using a pathway that produces toxic byproducts such as acetone and other so called ketones. This is very hard on the body, so in order to wash these toxic byproducts out of the system, the body uses a lot of water. 7

There are two types of carbohydrates: simple and complex.

Simple carbohydrates are from plants that have been refined and stripped of their fiber and nutrients, so they turn into “sugar” immediately and are quickly absorbed into the blood stream—at a rate that is faster than the body can metabolize, which results in being stored in other areas. (In this case, “sugar” is not the same thing as table sugar; this sugar, or glucose, is something the body needs very much, but not at the rate at which simple carbohydrates are absorbed.) Examples of simple carbohydrates are table sugar, cookies, pastries, chips, white bread, white pasta, white rice, sodas and so on. These foods are best to limit or avoid completely.

Complex carbohydrates are plants in their natural form, which retain their nutrients and fiber. When consumed, the fiber slows the process of “sugar” breakdown, so the body is getting what it needs at a rate at which it can metabolize. Examples of complex carbohydrates are vegetables, fruits and grains such as: wheat pasta, wheat bread, brown rice, and so on. The right types of grains are extremely healthy and are not something that makes one gain weight; the weight comes in when people add oils (which are pure fat) and animal products, which pile on the calories. Carbohydrates themselves are not fattening.

Despite their repeated condemnation in the popular press, scientific studies clearly show that carbohydrate-rich foods have virtually no effect on body weight––it’s the company they keep, such as oils, meat and dairy.8 Even if people overdo it, the calories from carbohydrates are either stored as glycogen, the high-energy molecules your muscles use for power and endurance, or are lost as body heat and are not turned into fat at all. It is no easy biochemical task to convert a piece of bread into human fat, and studies of controlled overfeeding show very little effect from even hefty amounts.9 Because calories are obtained from different sources, not all calories are metabolized in the same way. Calories from fat are much more likely to be converted into body fat, as opposed to calories coming from carbohydrates. Calories from carbohydrates require much more energy to be converted into body fat, so the body would rather use them than store them.

Therefore, carbohydrates are the best friends of those who want to lose weight, as they actually increase metabolism. Some of the thinnest populations in the world, like those in rural Asia, center their entire diets on carbs. They eat 50 percent more carbs than we do, yet have a fraction of our obesity rates.10 Complex carbohydrates are necessary for every bodily function.

In fact, without them you would not have the normal fuel you need for an active life, let alone any sort of athletic endeavor.11 A helpful tool is to take your ideal body weight, multiply it by ten and the result is the minimum amount of calories you should consume every day. This is assuming you are on a low-fat, plant-based diet.

A whole foods, plant-based diet is ideal for optimal health. It is often easier to make big changes in diet and lifestyle all at once than to make small, gradual changes. First, you feel so much better so quickly that the choices become clearer and worth making. Second, your palate adjusts quickly when you make comprehensive changes in your diet so that you begin to prefer low-fat foods. Fat is an acquired taste. It’s not one of your four basic tastes, so your palate adapts even more quickly to low fat than to low salt. Although people often think that fat tastes good, it really doesn’t. Nobody raids the Crisco jar in the middle of the night!12

Also, rice is extremely high in nutrients and can be a staple of your diet. There are several thousand different types of rice, but the typical American household is familiar with only one or two. Only when switching to a plant-based diet does one realize how limited their choices were before they eliminated animal products!


Information in this article was taken from:
Breaking the Food Seduction by Neal Barnard, M.D.; 1, 8, 9, 11
Carbophobia: The Scary Truth About America’s Low-Carb Craze by Michael Greger, M.D.; 3, 5, 6, 7, 10
The China Study by T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D.; 4
Eat More, Weigh Less by Dean Ornish, M.D.; 2, 12